


Touched

by rhodrymavelyne



Series: More Than a Jinrou [7]
Category: Shiki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 06:48:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14806380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: Yuuki Natsuno confronts Muroi Seishin, only to find that Ozaki Toshio isn't the only one carrying emotional wounds left from Sotoba.





	Touched

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place immediately after Part 6 of More Than a Jinrou, The Visit. 
> 
> I don't own Shiki, but sometimes its characters own me. :)=

At a loss for words, Natsuno peeked through the library door instead. 

Muroi Seishin didn’t get up from the voluminous chair he sat in. How frail and vulnerable he looked in his thin, violet shirt clinging to his slender torso and black slacks. 

How naked without the armour of his priest’s garb, giving him extra weight and gravity. 

“I suppose I look quite different to you.” Seishin rested his slightly pointed chin on his forehead, at odds with his wide forehead, delicate nose, and small mouth. “I am finally free of my chains which bound me to Sotoba, yet there is so little left of me without them.” 

“Is it the chains you miss?” Natsuno stepped into library, feeling the green eyes of his painted doppelganger watching him. Seishin’s eyes, weighing and judging him from his own face. “Or a particular bond?”

Seishin let out a sigh, letting his head and arm droop. “How is Toshio?”

“How do you think he’s doing?” Natsuno curled his hand into a half fist. “You abandoned him.” Rage, hot and stinging rose from his gorge. “You chose his enemy instead of him. How could you do that to him?”

“How could I?” Black rage, peppered with red swam through the green of Seishin’s eyes. A jinrou’s rage. “How could you? What have you done to him, Yuuki Natsuno-kun?”

“What have I done?” Natsuno paused, startled by this accusation. “I think we’ve both done this to him, Muroi-sensei. Your hold over his heart is as strong as my vampire bite, if not stronger.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Swift as striking serpent, Muroi Seishin sprang out of his chair and seized one of Natsuno’s wrists. 

Natsuno didn’t have time to do more than blink. This slender, scholarly man was a lot stronger than he appeared. 

Seishin lifted his hand, so the light of the chandelier fell upon their pale skin. “How often did you touch Toshio? Did you drive him mad, the same way you drove Tatsumi-san mad?” Black swallowed the last of the green light in the former priest’s eyes, leaving only twin rings of bloody red in the darkness. “You’ve done this a lot, haven’t you, Natsuno-kun?”

“Let go of me.” All of his anger drained out of him at the desperation in Seishin’s inhuman stare. It brought back memories of Tohru-chan tear-filled eyes, red with bloodlust, mingled with Masao, screaming at him, shaking him. 

Such accusations didn’t matter. They’d roll off Natsuno, dripping into his well of unshed tears. He wouldn’t release them. He refused. Such overflow would only hurt others. Images flashed of Tamotsu and Aoi’s bleak faces, pinching with pain. 

Seishin’s eyes were hollow with the same despair he’d seen in their faces, the same anguish. It would lash back at him, wounding the former priest himself. 

“Did you touch Megumi-chan? Mutou Tohru-chan?” Seishin’s grip shook, shaking Natsuno along with his hand. “You’re more than a jinrou, aren’t you, Natsuno? Your touch makes mortal and shiki alike obsess over you!”

Natsuno flinched at this, at the echo of his former teacher in the accusation. 

Seishin reacted to the flinch as if it were a blow. He released Natsuno and staggered back. The former priest collapsed into a chair, drained by his own anger. 

“You may be right.” Natsuno lifted his chin, forcing his own voice to remain calm. “I may have driven Shimizu, Tohru-chan, and Tatsumi mad.” He kept his gaze fixed upon Seishin. “Perhaps I did the same to Toshio with my touch, but so did you, Seishin-sensei.”

It was Seishin’s turn to flinch. He shut his eyes, not looking at Natsuno. 

“Please.” Natsuno dropped to one knee, so he was on the same eye level as Seishin. “Don’t give up on Toshio just because you think you’ve lost him.” 

Cold and wet, the chill of Tohru’s tears returned to him, his fangs approaching Natsuno’s unresisting neck. 

He’d brought flowers to Natsuno’s window. There’d been a moment when Natsuno considered revealing himself, but he hadn’t. 

He and Toshio might have lost everything if he had. 

Tohru-chan might still be alive. No, not alive, but not lying prone with a bloody stake in his chest, only to have his remains burnt to ashes. 

“Don’t make the same mistake I did.” Natsuno felt a single tear run down his cheek. 

Seishin opened his eyes. They were green once more, moist with surprised compassion. 

Natsuno turned his back on the former priest, unable to bear that expression. He strode out of the library, past his likeness and all the other morbid paintings in this morbid house, refusing to look at any of them. 

The door. He just wanted to get to the door and leave. What had he thought he could accomplish, talking to Muroi Seishin? 

The man was Toshio’s beloved friend, not his. All Natsuno was doing was getting between them. 

Time to get out of the way. 

“It’s too much, isn’t it? Too much for one person to bear.”

The sweet, high voice of Kirishiki Sunako stopped Natsuno before he reached his goal. 

“Seishin-sensei carries the weight of Sotoba, every dead shiki and human alike on his conscience.” Sunako slipped from the chair where she’d been waiting onto slippered feet. 

Light as a fairy from some western tale, she tripped toward Natsuno. “I cannot take that burden from him. I’m part of it.” All ruffles and bows, she almost appeared to float more than stand. “I wonder if Ozaki Toshio-sensei isn’t the antidote for Seishin-sensei as much as Seishin-sensei is for Ozaki-sensei.”

It took Natsuno a moment to realize that Kirishiki Sunako wasn’t his enemy. Not in this situation. 

“You’re not angry?” Natsuno studied Sunako’s slight smile, innocent of malice. “Even though Toshio and I are responsible for the death of many of your people, along with your dream.”

“How many people’s deaths do you think I’m responsible for, Natsuno? How many dreams have I stolen away?” Sunako allowed her smile to widen ever so slightly, exposing a hint of fang. “Some of them were yours.” 

The last mortal vision of running, gasping for breath, for life, trying to catch that blasted bus returned to him along with the chill of Tohru-chan’s tears, the sting of his fangs stinging his neck. Tohru-chan lying in a coffin, so far away, Tohru-chan with a stake in his chest, blood spreading across his striped shirt, the smell of smoke filling the air. 

Natsuno closed his eyes. These memories hurt. They would always hurt. No longer did Natsuno want to scream, to wrap his hands around the slender neck of the deceptively small girl in front of him. 

Not that doing so would have accomplished a thing. 

“It’s much easier to concentrate on those still with us than those we’ve lost, Yuuki Natsuno.”

Natsuno opened his eyes to see Sunako close her mouth, hiding her teeth, recreating the illusion of a little girl’s smile. “It would be foolish not to use every resource to help Seishin-sensei.” She lifted a white hand to motion toward Natsuno. “You and Ozaki-sensei have proven yourselves to be formidable opponents. I’d like to have you on my side this time.” She gestured toward the door. “Please feel free to tell Ozaki-sensei that.”

Natsuno moved as he was bidden, unsure what to make of this compliment. Victory had been as much a matter of luck as anything else in the battle for Sotoba. If Tatsumi had had any notion of what Natsuno had been up to, he would have destroyed the younger jinrou in spite of Sunako’s orders. 

“Oh, and Natsuno?”

The young jinrou stiffened a little at the soft note of menace in his name. 

“Take care of Tatsumi.” The smile disappeared from Sunako’s lips. “Any evil he has done is because he has a loyal heart.” Sorrow, regrets beyond the youthful timbre of her childish voice. “Take good care of it.”

“His heart still belongs to you.” Natsuno turned to face his former enemy. “Everything he’s ever done has been for you.”

“Until you crossed his path.” Sunako dropped her head. “I’m hoping you’ll treat him more kindly than I did.”

“I wouldn’t know the first thing about being kind.” Natsuno took a deep breath he wasn’t sure he needed. “I’m sorry. You’ve been quite generous, allowing Toshio to see Seishin-sensei. I am grateful even if I don’t know how to show it.”

“Perhaps there are things we can both learn from each other.” Sunako waved at the environs of her mansion in an inviting fashion. “Do come back to visit, Natsuno. I’d enjoy a chance to talk to you some more.” 

Natsuno nodded and fled. 

Outside, Tatsumi was waiting. 

“Well, did you get what you wanted?” Tatsumi glanced up from under lowered eyelids. “Will precious friends be reunited?”

“Yes, they will.” Determination gave Natsuno hope in the face of Tatsumi’s sarcasm, even if it was mingled with sadness and envy. “What they do with the reunion is up to them.”

“True enough.” Tatsumi lifted his gaze slightly to meet Natsuno’s eyes. “Just don’t be too disappointed at the outcome.”

**Author's Note:**

> I had to think long and hard about the honorifics in this. Some of them occurred spontaneously in the writing, like Sunako's informal address of Natsuno. I figured Seishin is now Seishin-sensei, due to the time they've spent together.


End file.
